


Choosing Your Fate

by FaerieMayden



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Bad to Not-So-Bad to Good, Can't Think of Tags For Once, Character Study, Gen, Usually I'm Really Good At Them, character redemption arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-09-02 12:55:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8668381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaerieMayden/pseuds/FaerieMayden
Summary: In the show, Jasper meets a terrible fate and ending at the hands of Gem Corruption.Well, I thought she deserved better than that.What would happen if Steven had actually successfully healed her?(Don't expect regular updates.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> SAYING THIS RIGHT NOW.  
> I have not actually made it to this episode. I watched clips of it to get an idea of the situation. The first half of the chapter the words are all pulled from the actual cartoon script, with the context between being my personal evaluations and interpretations of Jasper's thoughts; the second half is all me.
> 
> This is my first fanfiction for the Steven Universe fandom. I'm very tentatively tracing this new shoreline, as I am typically an Undertale fanfiction writer. But lately I got dragged into this fandom Hell (I actually got first into it last year back in August, but I didn't get in much deeper than watching the first 15 episodes and making a Gemsona), and after learning from a friend what happens to Jasper (she wouldn't tell me what happened, so of course I investigated) I wasn't happy with it, so I decided to create my own branching timeline. I did as much research in the wiki as I possibly could to make sure that I avoid making any mistakes, and after this chapter is posted, plan to continue watching until I am up to date.
> 
> Chapters after this one will take place between or after episodes, since Jasper is never canonically involved in future episodes, and I do not want her to affect the rest of the outcomes. She will simply be a background character in those moments, while being a main character in my story. More than anything this is a character redemption arc and character study, meant to scrutinize and more deeply evaluate Jasper's character and who she is under that ruff and tuff persona. I don't even know if there will be romance (as there is in pretty much all of my fics at some point, whoops), but there will likely be some close friendshippiness between Jasper and Amethyst. Please don't look into it too much, as I doubt anything more will come from that.
> 
> I am not a hater of any ships by any means, don't get me wrong, but there will be no Jasper/Lapis. Jasper fused with Lapis out of last-minute desperation for power; there was nothing healthy about that fusion. In fact, a lot of my character studying will be focused around that episode.
> 
> That being said, don't judge this too hard; just know that I spent three hours of my time instead of going out with family agonizing over how Jasper should react while still remaining as in-character as possible. And with that being said, I hope you enjoy.

“Nobody I fuse with...ever wants to stay.”

Jasper huffed a mirthless laugh at the realization as she lay there, possibly at her weakest, propped up only on her arms. She looked on in jealousy at the fused halfling and defective gem before her, rooting at their supposed victory against her. And she was _angry_. Why was it that they got to fuse so seamlessly; what was it with the Crystal Gems and their fusing tactic? What made them feel the need to refuse acceptance of their weakness, and come together rather than fight fair; the way they should fight? Jasper hadn’t been sent to Earth prepared for this. She was sent with two other Gems, and neither of them were on her side anymore. She was all alone.

She felt a tingling sensation run up her arm, opening her eyes and grimacing in disdain at what she saw. So this is what it came to, then.

She finally drops down to their level, and now she gets to lose her sense of self to a beast that hadn’t even wanted to be with her. Wasn’t that just perfect?

“Ew, that’s disgusting!” Came Peridot’s shrill voice from up on the cliff, and yeah, yeah it was. But what could Jasper do about it now? It was over. Her life was over. She had thrown her life away in a last attempt to overcome the Crystal Gems. All of that fighting, all of those attempts to prove that she was as strong as she was; thousands of years all thrown away in one single moment. The fact that so much effort could be snatched away in the blink of an eye was...well, it was sobering.

But that was what war was, wasn’t it? You train, and you either win, or you die. It was almost poetic. But Jasper wished that she could have gone down in a more dignifying way than this.

Then, she notices that Rose Quartz was approaching her...and snarls the battle maiden’s name. Why would such an admirable war hero shapeshift into such a weak _thing?_ Jasper didn’t understand. But she wasn’t about to be coddled. She didn’t need coddling; she had never needed it.

“I’m not Rose, I’m Steven. I just want to try and heal you,” the puny little Human boy said, and Jasper’s expression twisted. That wasn’t the first time that she...no, he, had insisted on that. Jasper didn’t understand. She had admired Rose’s battle tactics, but this...this made the least sense to her. It still didn’t make sense. And the fact that the other was, even now, still trying to extend an olive branch was a completely foreign thought. It made the corruption in Jasper’s arm throb, and her anger flare.

Jasper watched with a heated glare as the boy licked his hand and tried to approach, the saliva twinkling a faint pink, but otherwise appearing normal. As he got into her space, Jasper recoiled, brandishing her mutant arm’s claws. Steven jumped back, though his saliva-bearing arm was still outstretched. “Why should I let you help me?!” Jasper snarled, and before the other could respond, Jasper sat up and continued her budding rant. “I see how you do it now, Rose. You want gems after they’re worthless. You wait until after they’ve lost, because when you’re at the bottom, you’ll follow anyone. It makes you feel less of...a failure.” Jasper’s expression briefly twisted with pain as she thought of this, albeit aloud. Yes, that was what she was. A failure. She had failed her mission, and she would never be able to return to Homeworld. If she hadn’t damned herself to die here today, doomed to become a Corrupted Gem, she wouldn’t have anywhere to go.

Jasper is ripped from her thoughts when she hears footsteps, seeing Peridot running towards her to flank the sides of Steven and Amethyst. She was small without her enhancers; As a matter of fact, Jasper dared think the green Gem to be puny. Jasper decided to use the other as an example. “Just look at this one!” She exclaimed, gesturing wildly with her untainted hand towards Peridot. “You’ve stripped her of everything! Her limb enhancers--her status--her dignity.” Peridot argued, but Jasper wouldn’t hear anything against her own argument. In her last moments, she needed to prove to herself that even in her weakest hour, she was strong. That she wouldn’t back down and succumb to their level, even in the face of death. She continued her tirade unabashed.

“How can you side with Rose Quartz?!” Jasper demanded, teeth bared in a snarl and golden eyes glinting with thinly veiled fury. “Why? Why protect this _useless_ shell of a planet?” Peridot recoiled somewhat, looking...shocked by what Jasper said, like she couldn’t believe it. And Jasper, too, feels much the same upon the little green Gem’s explanation. “It’s not a shell. There’s so much life living here. That’s what _I’m_ doing! I’m...living here. I’ve been learning new things about myself all the time. L-Like, how I can make metal do my bidding!” Peridot exclaimed, throwing her arms zealously into the air. Several feet behind her, there is a slight clatter of the metal she had been fighting with earlier, finally falling to the ground. She looked somewhat, but briefly disgruntled at the fact that it finally did what she wanted, but at the wrong time. “The point being, Earth can set you free.”

Jasper was about to argue, but suddenly she felt a soft slap against her corrupted arm. She wouldn’t have noticed it after much longer--the corruption was beginning to send a numbness through her as it worsened, beginning to spread. She jerked backwards as Steven hastily withdrew, and it was possibly for the best, considering that she swiped after him. But once he was in safe distance, Jasper shot a glare at him before looking down at her arm. Peridot had been right--that was pretty gross looking. Especially as the Gem Infection begun to shift and move again, but it appeared to be lessening in severity. The numbness faded, the feeling coming back to her arm as the blue swirls twisted and shrank, before fully fading away. Jasper stared now less in anger, but more in awe at the strong magical effects.

With the corruption now gone, Jasper picked up her healed hand from the ground, squeezing her fingers. They were now fully mobile, normal, like they had been before. Rose’s powers had healed her. They had saved her from a certain death, but she might as well be dead anyways. She was stuck here. Forever. She knew that she could never go back to Homeworld.

She could flee, she supposed. But where would she go? She has been robbed of everything that she had. Jasper was nothing. All of that fighting was for _nothing._

Jasper felt arms wrapping around her neck, and instinctively tensed up. But it wasn’t a choke hold--it was...affectionate? The orange Gem felt a foreign heat rising to her face as she sat up, posture screaming indignance. “C’mere, sis,” she had heard the purple mass attached to her say, and at first, Jasper was angry. How dare this defective, impudent little _thing_ even touch her? They were on the same level in regards to social status, but this Amethyst was defective, weak, and utterly heinous. Jasper didn’t realize it, lost amidst her boiling thoughts, but she had begun to cry. It was a silent cry, not the gross and overly emotional kind, but it was still crying, and Jasper attempted to wipe them away before realizing that Amethyst was still clinging to her, impeding her movement.

There was a warm and fuzzy feeling filling Jasper at the sight of it. She linked it to the cause of her tears. She decided that she automatically hated the foreign emotion, and attempted to pry the other off. But in her weakened emotional and physical state--just when she thought she couldn’t get any weaker, Jasper thought bitterly--she could not muster the strength to detach the little parasite.

“You don’t have to be strong anymore,” Amethyst said, and at first Jasper growled, wanting to argue, but then an overwhelming wave of sorrow washed over her, and she found words too difficult to muster. She still didn’t motion to return the overly Human gesture to Amethyst, hugs still being a foreign concept. She had thought that Amethyst was attacking her at first, until nothing had happened. Jasper looked down at the embracing Gem when she felt movement, to see that Amethyst was looking back up at her. “It’s okay to be weak sometimes.”

Jasper, war veteran, warrior, and shatterer of gemstones, was simply incapacitated by a weak embrace.

Jasper didn’t believe this, not one bit, but she was also in no position to argue. So they simply sat there in the middle of that crater, surrounded by the remains of what was once her “army.” 

They’re there for some time, until Peridot speaks up. “Hey guys, do you think we can go home soon?”

**Author's Note:**

> Woosh.
> 
> *tosses self into gutter*


End file.
